Author: Makar

Stephen Sutherlin is a designer, poet and musician. He writes poetry about life in the southwest and enjoys metrical lyricism.

Keep Going

Coffee, Hot, Black,
Cream and sugar. I
explain to her that
It is “OK”
I know that fleeting
thoughts of old
dreams make melancholy
the otherwise
pervasive spirit.
It Matters not what
other’s done
or what I Did not.
We are not hungry,
no, quite the opposite…
We are so well fed
that we should burst
with the energy
to reel in the sun.
“You see, I’ve realized something”
Though longing makes for
great sounding poetry,
my real meaning is derived
from real work. No, not
the farm; Citizen poet
Makar of webs, pictures
words, words for words,
we have so much language
we can’t contain it
awaiting on shelves
for our pronunciation
if only we can understand…
“Want to go to the library?”

10/24/19

2019 American Place Poems

The Show Must Go On

I
Not one echo
In the empty
Open hall.
Plush crushed
Seats Un-touched
Perfect planks
Of stretched oak
Reflecting no wave
Absorbing no steps
Overarched with
ornate gold
Embellishment
Reaching over red
Velvet curtains
Pulled tight
Lights out
Dim luminance
Shadow of a
Need to be
Something more.

II
Crisp spring
Air, stifled
Indoors with
Full house.
Presidential
Entourage in
Crushed velvet
Seats, the color
Of sons lost on
Grassy fields
Now remembered
By a return
To normal.
Candle soot
Caked ceiling
Of embellishments
Suffocating on
The exhaled breath
Of the crowd
As they gasp, from
Wooden planks
Vibrating with
The sounds
Of treason.
”The president is dead!”

III
Upon first inhalation
You smell the
History of a
Place in history
Like church
Or the museum
Hardwood sweat
Tar and varnish
Blood…breath
Of time in the
Old velvet Seats
On the stage floor.
Time has not
Forgotten what
Has happened here.
A hundred years
have passed and
We still feel the
Loss of one
April night.
We are gathered here
To breathe in
History and
Experience the present.

IV
When a place
Is alive with
The sound of
Music, theater
Or poetry, every
Timber reverberates
With the memory
Of it. Ghost
Hunters spend the
Night hoping to
Read the energy
Of violence or
Perhaps the
Inhalation of
Hundreds of years
Of performances.
One tragedy for
For a nation
To remember
In one place
That exists now
Saved by the
Events
Of the past
And proffered by
A show that must
Go on.

Ars Philosophica Ars Poetica Footnotes Why

Notes on my experiments around Place

Post author By Makar
Post date October 17, 2019

I am starting down a series of paths to discover what this “thing” is that we refer to as “place”.
Experiment 1st draft – The Show Must Go On

I want to follow a series of poems on 1 PLACE down a structured path of revelation. 1. Place vacant objectified, absent of human interaction. 2. Place historical description of a place as used in history. 3. Place present place as it is used today. Modern representation. 4. Place potential a place can be or become something different. What comes about in a place during a music performance is dramatically different than if it were a theatrical performance. A place can be transformed and transformative.

2021 Art(i)fact Poems

Books Burning

“These citizens united have bought authority and power and placed
Liars at the heart of governance. They divide and devour
Our people who cower afraid of their neighbors and countrymen
All made worse by the Makars who write tragedies for the takers
And Eulogies for those they have broken. They lament the worst
That this land can offer and make kings of traitors and accomplices.
So we are gathered here tonight to set the world alight and burn down
The halls of books and paintings. Set fire to the Museums and Libraries.
Let these flames be the last thing to read these words.” Thus spoke Tiresias.
The Socratic Society and Pathagoryns had gathered that evening
In every town, near every hall of art and literature, they broke
Into schools and every Library and pool of poetry
Were purged by the flames of change. Everything that
Once stood for Free Speech and the predicate good was
Licked by the fire of a new order. They moved silently
Through the streets, caught the paintings and poetry unaware
As it burned in its own prison of walls and shelves.

2021 Ars Poetica Art(i)fact Breaking Muse Poems

Truth Under Siege

The work began before this land found itself under siege
The Pythagorans had for years made plans to unwrite Democracy
Preparations were made, the program laid, the foundation of the
Resurrection Council. Recreating the Masters and establishing
The Pillars to raise the rafters of the New Academy, usher in
The return of the teachers who yearn to create the Grand Republic
Set up the schools and the camps to produce the students
Who will grow into the proffered New Guardians
Teach them Mathematics and Gym, Philosophy and Science
Delete the Poetry and Tragedy; purge the Literature completely
Take up arms in defense of their fledgling government
That will rise from the ashes of these books
Do away with the old Democratic modes
Whose Freedom runs too freely in these streets
By The People who’ve overstepped their obligations to live
Their lives for the Better Good. The truth is under siege
In this Land of Liberty and must be culled for the New Prosperity.

2021 Ars Poetica Art(i)fact Breaking Muse Poems

Arts In Chief

“People of the nation – Rejoice – for today the artist’s guild
Has revealed the new Artist-In-Chief. Metron, The Makar,
The Poetic Calculator has been chosen to oversee the most skilled
Bards and authors, painters and creators who will prepare
This generation with their visions for our country
And bring to light the good rhythms and prisms to give
Tales that enlighten and delight with comedy and tragedy,
Beauty and morality to people who know freely how to live!
So, without further a do – let me present to you the latest
Installment to the cabinet of our President, the Poet Laurette
Metron.” “Thank you one and all here in Paterson Hall, lest
We forget from where we came, we return once again to get
Straight to the source of inspiration. I am honored
To be given this responsibility to the Heavens and promise
To return with gratitude and wisdom great works of expressions uncensored!”
But, there are many in the crowd, who wish to silence this proud canvass
Of the people. For a greater lesson to be taught of pomp and circumstance.

2019 American Place Garden Psalms Poems

Unsolvable Meditation

Post author By Makar
Post date October 16, 2019

At the end of the mathematics
Of the Universe, Hawking
Solved for God; the only
Possible solution for
The unsolvable question.
I am met with the same
Wonder as I sit under
The trees in the garden
Contemplating the galaxy…
And my place wherein:
A drop of water, charged
On a piece of sand, hurled
Around a ball of fire, swung
Towards an enormous singularity…
“Amen.”

Ars Philosophica Ars Poetica Art(i)fact Breaking Muse

The Poet’s Bureau

In the beginning there was the word
and the word was good. It filled the
Lives of The People with joy
And the bold spirit of work and
Purpose and the meaning was known.
The meaning was shared in every-
Day life, the simple things were
Recognized, categorized, rasterized
Through the lines of the citizen.
The Poets Bureau was the purveyor
Of the word. The sharer in chief
The Makar of the memories of
The city. There was not one aspect
Of life that did not share the
Poetry of the place and pictures of the times of
Persons being human. Articulating,
Elevating, creating the feeling of the land.

2019 Poems

Chemical Reaction

Post author By Makar
Post date October 14, 2019

Silenced by Fire.
The orange lightning
Spreads over my words.
They are burnished one
Last time into my eyes
As my breath turns
My last words to dust,
All their energy
Taken away
By the fury of the sun.

2019 American Place Poems

Classics

Classic icon of the West
The great steel horse, chief driven
Western power charging across the
Iron scars of a landscape torn open
With industrial desires and the need for connection.
Ancient mode in modern time, still carrying the promise of the dream across American desert. Anticipating your latest desires, in tow.
Carriage.
“Hey, is #489 running late?”